Need some reassurance

[Doodles]

I think we all second guessed ourselves many times. YLou have to learn to ignore some of the comments. I know my mom thought it was totally wrong up until the end and I just had to ignore it. I actually wished I had done it sooner since recovery gets harder and longer with age. I actually had a relaxation tape for healing--Peggy Huddleston-- I listened to the last few weeks. It sort of centered me with a mind-set on positive outcomes & forced worry away for a while. There's probably some threads about her book and tapes on here. Good luck and have faith in your decision. Janet

[JenniferG]

Jamie, from everything I know, you're doing the right thing. Clearly, your curve is progressing and you know it will continue progressing, so logic will tell you that the sooner surgery's done, the better. By doing so, you're saving yourself a lot of crookedness, pain and worry into the future. And the younger you are, the easier the recovery, and you're not going to get any younger. If you had the surgery later, your surgeon would have a bigger task on his hands, and you may not get as good a correction so it seems to me that having surgery now is the right thing to do.

Your surgeon obviously feels it's necessary or he wouldn't be doing it. I think we all have these backwards glances and wonder if we're doing the right thing. I would say this is perfectly normal, when facing spinal surgery.

I know I'm not saying anything you don't already know, but hopefully reading it again will help.

[Pooka1]

Well, I think with that solid evidence case for progression, the case for surgery now is mainly to minimize the number of levels involved by doing it as soon as possible. If you wait, perhaps you would need a much longer fusion, especially into the lumbar.

It haunts me to think my daughters might have shorter fusions had they been fused earlier. They each have 10 levels fused.

Good luck.

[JamieAnn]

Hi Everyone,

My surgery is in just about 7 weeks, and I'm beginning to panick. I'm actually becoming somewhat at peace with the surgery itself and feel more prepared in a sense for the recovery and the pain, etc, but I'm panicked about whether or not this is the right decision for me.

I've read on this forum that people second guess the decision all the way to the OR, but does anyone have any advice, word of wisdom or can tell me how they dealt with this feeling? I find that I'm having trouble sleeping and finding that I don't really want to talk to people about the surgery. I keep feeling like people don't understand and give me looks of pity, and it just makes the feelings I'm having worse.

By the way, my curves are at about 46 thoracic and the lumbar is compensatory in the mid 30's. I have some pain from muscle pushing and pulling and overall feel crooked, but I have lived a normal life. I have decided to do surgery based on my curve worsening at about 1 degree per year since skeletal maturity, and wanting to stop it before it worsens.

Any advice is very much appreciated.

Thanks everyone,
Jamie